Drouin’s hat trick sends Moose to big win

Winger extends points streak to 17 games as Moose rebound from sloppy loss to Wildcats

Jonathan Drouin played like he was on some kind of mission Tuesday night at the Metro Centre.

The Halifax Mooseheads winger scored three highlight reel goals and created a scoring chance on virtually every shift in his team’s 7-0 win over the P.E.I. Rocket.

“I don’t know, the puck was bouncing on my side sometimes,” said Drouin, the game’s first star. “Maybe some nights they don’t bounce (for you) but (Stephen) MacAulay had some really good plays with me and Marty (Frk) too. It was just a good game for me and the goals were going in.”

Drouin opened the scoring with a ridiculous breakaway move while killing a penalty late in the first period. He followed with another beauty on a two-on-one with Stefan Fournier 4:09 into the second period. Konrad Abeltshauser made it 3-0 a few minutes later when he slapped a long rebound into the P.E.I. net.

Drouin completed his hat trick on the power play 5:12 into the third period. MacAulay, Darcy Ashley and Luca Ciampini added late goals to round out the scoring.

“I think we had a really good start,” Drouin said. “The Fournier line gave us momentum at the beginning and we just rolled on from there. The goals were coming and we’re really happy with the way we played.”

Drouin's goals extended his points streak to 17 games. He now has 35 points during the streak, which ties him for the longest in the QMJHL this season. Forward Alexandre Lavoie had a 17-game run in the fall when he was with the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles. Halifax winger Marty Frk had his points streak snapped at 14 games.

“He’s pretty incredible to watch,” Halifax defenceman Trey Lewis said of Drouin. “I know Nate (MacKinnon) is out for a couple of weeks with a lower body injury but Jo definitely stepped up tonight and showed us what he’s made of.”

Ciampini finished with a goal and two assists and Fournier (two assists), MacAulay (one goal, one assist), Konrad Abeltshauser (one goal, one assist) and Matthew Boudreau (two assists) had two-point nights. Antoine Bibeau and Maxime Lagace combined to stop 29 shots for P.E.I. and Zachary Fucale was sharp in a 30-save performance for Halifax.

“He’s back to his playoff mode from last year,” Drouin said. “Today was a shutout and he almost had one in Baie-Comeau (on Feb. 1). I think Zach’s really playing well lately.”

The one-sided result also allowed Mooseheads head coach Dominique Ducharme to give extra ice time to some of his depth players. MacKinnon missed his first game with a knee injury, defenceman MacKenzie Weegar is day-to-day with a wrist injury and forwards Andrew Ryan (knee) and Ryan Falkenham (concussion) are also out of the Halifax line-up.

That allowed rookie defenceman Brennan Bailey to play his first career QMJHL game and others like defenceman Brian Lovell and forwards Liam Alcalde and Max Lindsay to get in a few more shifts than usual.

“Everyone on the team can play and opportunities arise when guys get hurt,” Lewis said. “You don’t want to see anyone get hurt but it definitely helps some guys get a chance out there.”

And as mesmerizing as Drouin and the entire Halifax offence was, it was easy to lose sight of the defensive effort put in by the Mooseheads. They gave the Rocket very few scoring chances and had a clear edge in time of possession.

“That’s what we’re trying to work on,” Lewis said. “When our forwards come back and cut their plays in the neutral zone, it definitely creates offence for us. Dom’s been preaching that all year. I think we did a pretty good job of that tonight.”

The result puts the Mooseheads (43-6-2-1) back in the win column after a sloppy 8-5 loss to the Moncton Wildcats on the road on Friday. The Rocket slip to 30-21-2-0.

The Mooseheads play their next two games at home, starting on Friday against the Shawinigan Cataractes. The Wildcats are in town on Saturday.

“Shawinigan’s been playing good lately,” Drouin said. “They beat Quebec twice and we can’t really take them lightly. We know they’re at the bottom of the standings but it’s a game we’ve got to win. We’re going to focus on Moncton after Shawinigan.”